Any character who learns a gift or rite belonging exclusively to one of the extinct or lost Changing breed or Garou tribes (defined for this purpose as the Apis, Bunyip, Camazotz, Croatan, Grondr, and White Howlers).

Any character who learns a gift or rite belonging exclusively to one of the extinct or lost Changing breed or Garou tribes (defined for this purpose as the Apis, Bunyip, Camazotz, Croatan, Grondr, and White Howlers).

Rite of the Beating Heart

Description: These days, Stargazer caerns are particularly vulnerable places. There is, however, a rather perilous Stargazer rite that some have learned in case their caern is threatened and beyond the ability of the guardians to protect it. With this rite, a Stargazer may take the powerful heart of the caern into her own heart and secret it away from the place so its power may be planted anew, or at least added to the strength of an already existing caern. In performing the rite, a single Stargazer must first successfully perform the Rite of the Opened Caern. Once this is complete, the werewolf must then consume some part of the land surrounding the caern -- this may be soil from the ground, water from a lake, or even pieces of brick or concrete if it's an urban caern. Finally the Stargazer must plead with the totem spirit of the caern, begging and cajoling until finally the caern heart is relinquished for a time, taken deep into the Stargazer's own still-beating organ. But this rite carries with it an exhausting price; the Stargazer who takes this burden unto herself will die soon after performing the rite, as her flesh is simply too frail to handle the potent energies that accompany a caern's own spirit. Her time to affix the caern's heart back to the flesh of the Emerald Mother is severely limited. Knowledge of this rite is exceedlingly rare.

Effect: After opening the caern and consuming some part of it, the Stargazer may plead with the caern totem to permit this rite, and is eventually able to perform the rite. The Stargazer may carry the caern's heart within her for a number of scenes/hours equal to her rituals rating -- each increment beyond that inflicts a level of aggravated damage, which cannot be prevented or healed by any means until the caern has been released. If the Stargazer dies before releasing the caern, it dies with her and cannot be recovered. At the Storyteller's discretion, for dramatic purposes the duration of this rite may be increased to days instead of hours with the expenditure of a permanent Willpower Trait. "Dropping" the caern heart into a new location requires the expenditure of a number of Permanent Gnosis equal to the caern's rating; if the Stargazer does not have the requisite amount of Gnosis, she may make up the difference at a cost of two levels of aggravated damage per Gnosis trait missing. She may do this even if the damage kills her, essentially sacrificing her life to ensure that the caern continues in its new location. At any time while "carrying" the caern, the Stargazer may voluntarily reject the caern spirit and eject it from her form without any tests or Gnosis expenditure, but this immediately destroys the caern, and it may never return. Needless to say, such a vile act is perhaps the greatest treason a Garou can perform, and unless the Stargazer can justify the action extremely well (not to mention quickly), she is likely to face an extremely gruesome death at the hands of her fellow Garou. On the other hand, no form of control or persuasion (supernatural or otherwise) can force the Stargazer to give up the caern against her will -- all such attempts automatically fail. She must do it of her own free will, for better or worse.

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Detailed Reasoning

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Hello Council! The players of several Stargazer PCs have asked for this Rite to come under Coordinator control for use and learning outside the tribe, due to the fact that the Rite can be used to literally steal a caern, including the Totem spirit that resides within it, into their own body for a short period of time.

I have zero desire in limiting appropriate ST usage of the gift with NPCs, but I do believe there should be a gate on this with PCs, especially for non Stargazer PCs.

This is a tribal secret that should not be up for grabs to the general population. It has a point in being taught outside the tribe, but that should be exceptionally rare and for a very very good reason. Beyond this fact, this sort of rite can be unbalancing or damaging to the genre, so we want to make sure we are keeping it in check in a way that hinders as few players and staff members as possible.